Chinese couple sells children to pay for online gaming habits

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We’ve heard of some pretty awful cases of neglect when it comes to online gaming addiction around the globe, but never any quite as mercenary as this. A Chinese couple have been arrested after it was discovered the pair had been selling off their children in order to pay for online gaming sessions.

The couple Li Lin and Li Juan(both under 21) met in 2007, before having their first son a year later. A few days later they travelled 30Km to play games in an internet cafe, leaving him unattended.

However it wasn’t until the birth of their second child, a daughter in 2009, that the pair came up with the idea of selling the children to pay for their gaming trips.

They sold their daughter for RMB 3,000 (less than $500), before selling their first son for RMB 30,000 ($4600) and then having a second son, sold for the same amount as the first.

It was only when Li Lin’s distraught mother found out that her son was selling his children were the pair turned into the authorities.

Neither parent misses the children. “We don’t want to raise them, we just want to sell them for some money,” they said when quizzed.